The present invention relates generally to electronic transactions, and more particularly to electronic transactions with mobile communications devices.
Electronic transaction systems have been widely deployed for business applications. A common example of an electronic transaction system is an electronic payment system with which a user pays for goods or services. Widely-deployed and well-established electronic payment systems utilize a credit card with an embedded magnetic strip containing encoded user account information. The magnetic strip is swiped through a magnetic card reader connected to a point-of-sale terminal that decodes the user account information. Sales information (such as merchant identification code, transaction identification code, date, time, and price) and user account information are transmitted to an electronic payment processing center that charges the purchase to the user account.
More recent electronic payment systems utilize a card or tag with user account information stored in a memory chip and transmitted by a radiofrequency (RF) transmitter. A point-of-sale terminal equipped with a RF receiver reads the user account information when the RF transmitter is placed near the RF receiver.
Another example of an electronic transaction system is an electronic ticket system. A user can purchase a ticket to an event (such as a sports game, play, or concert) via the Internet and print a ticket containing a ticket identification number encoded in a barcode. At the event, the barcode is scanned by a barcode reader that transmits the ticket identification number to an electronic ticket processing center.
Electronic ticket systems can also generate electronic boarding passes. A user can purchase an airplane ticket via the Internet and print a ticket containing a boarding pass with boarding information encoded in a barcode. At the boarding gate of the airline terminal, the barcode is scanned by a barcode reader that transmits the boarding information to an electronic boarding pass processing center.
In the electronic ticket systems described above, a user typically accesses the Internet via a computer, purchases the tickets, and prints out the barcodes on paper. Mobile phones with video displays and Internet connectivity have become widely available. A user can now access the Internet via a mobile phone, purchase a ticket, and display a barcode on the video display. The barcode can then be read by a conventional barcode reader. Although a paper copy of the barcode is eliminated in this procedure, the actual purchase of the ticket is still processed through the vendor's website. What is needed is an electronic transaction system to dynamically process transactions.